may have made intro before, but i cannot remember. real quick, i am a 62 year old male that is recovering a lot better than doctors ever thought, from a heart attack and three strokes in 2009. so well that i am leaving thursday week after next for maxton, n.c. to run my 2003 SS chevy truck in thr maxton mile, land speed event. i have been practising using a walking stick, a custom job i must add, instead of my walker! lee timms and mrs. timms let me come to the track one saturday last spring and i made 7 runs down the track with lee bravely riding along to observe my ablity to control the vehicle, my reflexes etc. and wrote a letter to the same to go along with a letter from my doctor to ga along with entry form. i have got hotel reservations, a correct helmet and firerated jacket and i thought i was ready to go. the rest of my text probably should go elsewhere but i will try it here and i need some suggestions if anyone can help me. last week with the help of and old friend that i had to be introduced to ang get reaquainted with, i had new hoses and belts installed. the truck only has 40,000 miles on it and has the same same engine as a corvette ls1. in a ss chevy truck the engine is a 6.0 lq9 motor. the temp gage had quit working so i ordered a new ac delco unit for 38.00, made in mexico. after opening the package and installing we realized that the needle was broken around the stem. to repair the truck would have to go to a dealer shop and the entire cluster removed. the sending unit goes into aluminum and is a straight thread brass piece with a copper washer. i have looked on the internet and called looking for an aftermarket, under dash gage with a sended unit compatible with and ls engine to give me a temp gage until i get back, but so far no luck. has anyone ran into this in a ls chevy motor into another car or truck? with the low miles, new belts, hoses and the system flushed out i should not encounter a problem but i do not like to make that long of a trip and then make 4 or 5 runs at maybe 120 to 130 miles an hour and not be able to watch the temp. THEN after researching for months i purchased a tonno cover mainly for aerodynamics and then for convenience. after installing someone brought up the question, what if the cover started blowing off at 120 miles an hour. i called a mfg. service rep. that checked with the company engineer. he said that the cover had only been tested to 85 mph. and he reccomended removal before making thr trip. the first thing i thougt about was using 4 or 6 metal c-clamps but they will not fit, any suggestions? now the big problem, again someone said they did not think a 4l65e chevy transmission would shift into 4th gear at wide open throttle. i have checked with performance experts, transmission experts, chevy dealer servive reps. and out of more than 12 calls some said they did not know and most said the shift into 4th gear would not be made at w.o.t.. again any suggestions will be appreciated. thank you, garrell patterson

1 have called 12 different people, performace experts, transmision experts, chevy service reps. and no one knows for sure. with a 4.10 rear gear i will run out of gear and motor in one mile. again if i placed this in the allowed category can anyone offer any suggestions. thanks, garrell patterson